I'm looking for recommendations for an iOS barcode scanner app. Specifically for iPad which will support a custom URL callback to enable the app to be launched from a web browser.
Additionally, it needs to support and a custom search URL which will send the user back to the website once the barcode has been decoded into a URN (SKU).
I have discovered ZBar which is an excellent app, unfortunately it doesn't support custom URL callback and it's designed for the iPhone.
Another app pic2shop PRO seems to tick these boxes, but it's relatively expensive at £10.49 and the setup will require somewhere in the region of 200 installs.
I did a similar project using the free version of pic2shop . The thing is that the free version can read only these types of barcodes : UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8 , according to the documentation of the app.
Pic2shop is a free barcode scanner app available for iOS® and Android®. It reads UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8 and QR codes. The app also display comparison shopping results for UPC and EAN.
From my personal experience, I can say that it scans and decodes the barcode very fast and very accurate.
In my project the app is launched from a webpage, it works for both android and ios. In order to get it working you have to invoke the pic2shop app from a url and then set your callback address. You will find the decoded barcode data as a value to a parameter in the callback url. To help you more, you can get those values using this javascript function found here.
For example:
<input type=button OnClick="scan();" value="Scan Barcode">
<script>
function scan(){
window.location="pic2shop://scan?callback=http://yourwebsiteurl.com/index.html?barcode=ean"
}
</script>
As soon as the item is successfully scanned it will redirect you to the callback url with the actual barcode number as a value to a parameter. For example http://yourwebsiteurl.com/index.html?barcode=5123548745123. I already told you how to get the value of a url parameter with javascript.
PDF417.mobi Pro barcode scanner app supports that use case.
Note: I'm a developer on that project.
Basically, the app can be launched from any other app, including a web application, when url in the form: pdf417://scan?type=PDF417,UPCA&callback=myscheme://myaction is launched.
The app then scans the barcode, in multiple formats, (PDF417 and UPCA in this example), until the result is obtained.
Then, the app opens the URL myscheme://myaction. In your case, this can be your web service, http://www.somemyscanner.com/service.
Specifically, it will open the URL using format: http://www.somemyscanner.com/service?data=[data]&type=[type].
You can then use those parameters to implement your desired functionalities.
I tried the PDF417 app and it is EXTREMELY expensive (for an app - $28) and does not work. I bought it anyway because I am trying to solve the same issue and I can tell you it is not the solution for general barcode scanning.
It might work with pdf417 barcodes, but those are few and far between and I haven't been able to get it to work. I definately does not support any standard barcode formats. It also has no settings panel (in settings) and the tap target in the app that should be settings just take you to the company web site.
I am still testing other apps but haven't found any app that does what you ask, Red Laser used to but it no longer has that functionality.
Related
Problems
I'm using react-native for our current services, and we are sending cookies to our webpage to send information which is needed to seen in our webview. These process is working PERFECTLY in android devices, but not in IOS. (The most annoying thing is set-cookie works sometimes in IOS in same condition. It just randomly succeeded, and I cannot find the reason why.)
How To Reprouce
First of all, these are the stacks we are currently using.
Application: React-Native
Webview: react-native-webview (https://github.com/react-native-webview/react-native-webview)
Cookie: #react-native-cookies/cookies (https://github.com/react-native-cookies/cookies)
Webpage: React (Already deployed in AWS)
Cookie: react-cookie (useCookie)
And the following is our process we are currently doing.
If the user clicks a button (I will call this button as 'Apply' button), it navigates to screen that includes <WebView />
This is a abstract of our webview screen code (For our security issue, I just abstracted and changed some code for it, so if you think more information for our code, please let me know.)
Rendering Page
enter image description here
WebView Component
enter image description here
Send Cookie
enter image description here
Send Cookie Function
enter image description here
(This function is kinda messy bc this is a collective code from 3 files, and I tried my best to set cookie differently with android. (The same logic with android doesn't work in IOS))
Webpage (Launched in AWS)
enter image description here
I Want My Code To Do This
I want my code to send cookie in loading state, and after loading, when the webview rendered, the webpage get some cookie and based on that cookie, it shows some data.
It PERFECTLY works on Android, but not in IOS. It works randomly in IOS so I have no idea what the heck is wrong with this code and hard to define a problem.
I tried...
Someone said to me to add '.' infront of domain. It worked for the very first time, but after the second trial, it starts to not working again
I also tried clear all cookie data before set cookie using
await CookieManager.clearAll();
, but it works same as the first measure I tried.
I also tried to use webkit. I send all true arguments to use webkit while using cookiemanager, but it has no effect.
I expected to do...
As I write in the above, I hope the cookie is rightly set in both android and ios environment, perfectly works in both platform.
Is it possible to make sure that (deep) links don't open a new browser window?
Use case would be e.g. QR Codes or NFC tags that contain some kind of identifier along with a URL/deep link URL.
e.g. www.example.com/mypwa/game=ID
The idea in this case would be that an asset linked to ID would become available in the app.
When you want to do that repeatedly, currently both Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS (as Standard Browser) open a new tab for each tapped NFC tag, confusing the user.
Is it possible for a PWA to check if it is already running in another tab, and if yes, take over the URL parameter (ID) and work with it ?
I am implementing firebase dynamic links in my iOS app and I can already parse the link, redirect to AppStore etc. Now I want to distinguish the first run of the app, when user installs it from the dynamic link - I want to skip the intro and show him the content that is expected to be shown.
Is there some parameter, that I could catch in application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) so I could say that it was launched thru the dynamic link?
The method application(_:continueUserActivity:userActivity:restorationHandler:) is called later, so the intro is already launched.
This case is difficult to test, because you have to have your app published on the AppStore.
You actually don't need to have the app published in the App Store for this to work — clicking a link, closing the App Store, and then installing an app build through Xcode (or any other beta distribution platform like TestFlight or Fabric) has exactly the same effect.
According to the Firebase docs, the method that is called for the first install is openURL (no, this makes no sense to me either). The continueUserActivity method is for Universal Links, and is only used if the app is already installed when a link is opened.
I am not aware of any way to detect when the app is opening for the first time after install from a 'deferred' link, but you could simply route directly to the shared content (skipping the intro) whenever a deep link is present. If a deep link is NOT present, show the regular intro.
Alternative Option
You could check out Branch.io (full disclosure: I'm on the Branch team). Amongst other things, Branch is a great, free drop-in replacement for Firebase Dynamic Links with a ton of additional functionality. Here is an example of all the parameters Branch returns immediately in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:
{
"branch_view_enabled" = 0;
"browser_fingerprint_id" = "<null>";
data = "{
\"+is_first_session\":false,
\"+clicked_branch_link\":true,
\"+match_guaranteed\":true,
\"$canonical_identifier\":\"room/OrangeOak\",
\"$exp_date\":0,
\"$identity_id\":\"308073965526600507\",
\"$og_title\":\"Orange Oak\",
\"$one_time_use\":false,
\"$publicly_indexable\":1,
\"room_name\":\"Orange Oak\", // this is a custom param, of which you may have an unlimited number
\"~channel\":\"pasteboard\",
\"~creation_source\":3,
\"~feature\":\"sharing\",
\"~id\":\"319180030632948530\",
\"+click_timestamp\":1477336707,
\"~referring_link\":\"https://branchmaps.app.link/qTLPNAJ0Jx\"
}";
"device_fingerprint_id" = 308073965409112574;
"identity_id" = 308073965526600507;
link = "https://branchmaps.app.link/?%24identity_id=308073965526600507";
"session_id" = 319180164046538734;
}
You can read more about these parameters on the Branch documentation here.
Hmm... as far as I'm aware, there's not really anything you can catch in the application:(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions) phase that would let you know the app was being opened by a dynamic link. You're going to have to wait until the continueUserActivity call, as you mentioned.
That said, FIRDynamicLinks.dynamicLinks()?.handleUniversalLink returns a boolean value nearly instantly, so you should be able to take advantage of that to short-circuit your into animation without it being a bad user experience. The callback itself might not happen until several milliseconds later, depending on if it's a shortened dynamic link (which requires a network call) or an expanded one (which doesn't).
My company created an app that sends location deals in an app inbox. I want to send directions in the appmail so that if someone clicks on 'Click here for directions' it will automatically open directions from current location to the requested point in the Apple Maps app.
When I email the URL to myself and open it with AppMail, it works perfect.
When I send the URL via AppMail, it opens the URL in safari via GoogleMaps.
This is the URL I'm using.
>>Click Here for Directions<<
You need to change:
http://maps.apple.com/?...
To one of:
http://maps.apple.com/maps?...
or
http://maps.google.com/maps?...
The apple.com URL is technically the correct one, but the google URL is the only one that will work properly on older versions of iOS, and new versions of iOS also support it as well (although I don't know how long that will last).
This is my first time create an ios application that required deep linking. I need to create a web service for my custom url scheme for ios in order to publish it online. Please give some pointer on regarding which web service i should use or is there an alternative way to create a deep linking for custom url scheme for iOS. Thanks.
You can do it yourself with any server platform - Rails, PHP, Dot.Net, etc.
Here is a very simple PHP snippet. Replace "myappname" with your app's URL scheme. The param/value query is optional - you can use any other text and parse it in your App Delegate's openUrl method.
if (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'iPhone OS') !== FALSE) {
// redirect
header("location: myappname://?key=value");
exit();
}
Client use-cases:
iOS Safari, your app installed - will open your app.
iOS Safari, your app not installed - Safari will complain that it cannot open the link.
Another iOS app, your app installed - will switch to your app.
Another iOS app, your app not installed - same as Safari. However, if the other app is implementing UIApplication's canOpenURL: - it may gracefully take the user to the App Store, but it's up to the other app developer.
Any other device or browser - will continue to render the page, where you can add your html including AppStore links.
If you don't want to create the server code, you can use a tool I created for this purpose. You have it here:
http://www.uppurl.com/
It's mainly a short link tool that checks for user device and give him the right url based on his devices. With this tool you don't need to write any server code and it also takes care of different devices, operating systems and browsers.
Take care of Tal answer as latest versions of Chrome has changed the way to open app and now you need to provide a link in different format, they use something like "intent://..."